Merry Christmas, Captain
by Alone-in-Life
Summary: On Hiatus. Turning it into a oneshot. Hope you like the update version.
1. Looks a lot like Christmas

**Several years ago tragedy struck Elena and her sister, and things weren't the same afterwards. No matter how hard Elena tried to make things seem normal. Elena's boyfriend, Jason, has been absent since mid November. One business trip after another, and she still waits for him every day. She's best friends with Pepper since College. Pepper has invited Elena and her sister to attend the annual Holiday party up in New York. Elena invited Pepper and whoever she wants to bring to her sister's show. Elena's sister, Roxanne, is in the Lucia festival at their church. When Elena realizes she's late for picking up her sister she bumps into a man walking down her street. Little did she know that the man was none other than The Captain. Will sparks fly between elena and the Captain or will she stay loyal to the absentee boyfriend?**

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_It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go._

Snow was falling lightly as the wind whipped at Elena's face. She pulled her scarf closer to her neck, grabbing her keys in her pocket and opened the door to her house. She quickly closed the door to avoid all the heat leaving the house. She brushed all the snow off of her coat and placed her gloves and keys down on the side table, hanging up her coat on a hanger she looked at the floor and saw the mail that need to be picked up. She let out a sigh and grabbed the mail before walking to the kitchen. She placed the mail down on the counter and grabbed a cooking pan and placed it down on the stove.

Just as she was about to open the fridge to grab something to cook the phone rang. She walked over and looked at the phone for caller I.D. It turned out to be her best friend since college, Virginia Potts better known as Pepper.

"Hey pep, what's up?" She asked as she placed the phone between her ear and shoulder.

"So much, going around trying to get tony to sign the contract with a company over in England and he, being Tony, is putting it off again and again. I swear I'm going to kill him one day. I mean I love him I really do but he acts like such a child sometimes, correct that, all the time." Pepper let out a sigh after her rant was over. Elena just let out a light laugh at her friend. She knew what it was like to have a boyfriend high up in the industry world. Elena's boyfriend was a businessman slash competitor to Tony.

"I'm sorry to hear that. You could always say that Jason is signing on with the same company if he doesn't?" Elena suggested. She was trying to help her friend with her boyfriend who was, is, acting like a child.

"I don't know. I think Tony's gotten over the grudge between them." Pepper said as she shook her head.

"Oh darn. Hey you could always say that if he doesn't do it you would go work for Jason." Elena said as she grabbed a bag of dumplings out of the freezer and started to open the bag and dump them in the pan.  
"I could say that but I'm sure he would know that, that would be a lie." Pepper said as she smirked at the thought of his reaction. Elena just laughed at the thought. She knew that Tony would know better.

"Well it's a thought." Elena said. She turned on the stove and started to cook the dumplings. She stayed on the phone with Pepper for a while longer, just catching up with each other. They talked, laughed, joked, and teased each other.

"Oh I almost forgot to tell you. Tony and I are having a Holiday party and you're invited, that is if you can come?" Pepper asked as she placed her planner down on her desk.

"Are you kidding me? Of course I can come, just when is it?" Elena asked as she finished her food and put the plate in the sink. She was worried about when the party was, because her sister was in the Lucia Festival at their church and she was the Lucia this year. Elena wouldn't dare miss it for the world.

"It's late in the month, the 20th to be more exact. Five days before Christmas." Pepper said, looking down at her planner where she wrote the date.

"Oh ok that's good. My sister is the Lucia this year and I wouldn't miss it for the world." Elena looked around the room and saw that there wasn't anything left to pick up so she went to go sit down on the couch.

"That's great that you guys are still doing that. When is it by the way? I want to see if I can try to come down for it." Pepper said as she grabbed a pencil and opening her planner.

"Hold on one sec. I need to find the paper for it. I know it's early in the month….. Here it is. It's the 6th, 7th, and 8th of December. So it's coming up pretty soon." Elena kicked her feet up on the table, something she was taught never to do but since there was nobody else home to tell her that she did it anyway.

"Perfect I can fit that right into my weekend." Elena laughed lightly when Pepper said that. She knew Pepper lived her life by her planner; she was the same why in college.

"Good to see that nothing's changed with you Pep." Elena joked; she could sense that Pepper was smirking at her comment.

"Ha ha ha. Very funny. Hey would it be ok if I brought some of my friends along with me to the show?" Pepper asked. Elena rolled her eyes.

"Pep this is an open show. If you want them to come, then they can come. You don't need to ask me." Elena said shaking her head.

"I know but still." Pepper said, smiling at her own answer. Elena smiled. She missed her best friend. They did a good job of staying in contact with each other even after college but it wasn't the same as it used to be. They stayed this way a bit longer and laughed about their lives and the things they did in college. Elena looked at the clock.

"Oh shit. I got to go pick up Roxanne. Sorry Pepper, I lost track of time. I got to go. I'll talk to you later ok?" Elena asked as she quickly put on her shoes and struggled with her jacket, while still holding the phone in her hand.

"Yeah sorry to distract you, call me when you get the chance." Pepper said before hanging up the phone and getting back to work. Elena hung up the phone and placed it down on the side table by the door as she grabbed her gloves and keys. She headed out the door, slipping on her gloves. She looked down at the stairs making sure she didn't step on ice and slip. What she failed to notice was a man walking right in front of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Elena said very quickly before turning around and walking to her car. The man that she had just run into caught a quick glimpse of the clumsy Elena. He felt a smile crawl its way up on his face. He thought that she was quite beautiful. She had long dark brown hair, falling almost to her waist. Her brown eyes were stunning and she wore little makeup. The man shook his head. He never thought of a woman that way, not since well before he woke up in the 21st century. He hadn't seen the woman coming down the stairs when he bumped in to her. He continued to walk down the street till he got to the end of the street.

"Shit I'm sorry I'm so late. I was on the phone with Pepper and I lost track of time." Elena said as she got out of the car and walked up to her 14-year-old little sister. Her sister just glared at her. Elena offered her a small smile as she took Roxanne's bag and placed it in the back of the car. Roxanne walked around the car and opened the front seat passengers' side door. Elena let out a sigh and got into the driver's seat.

"Elena you've been late twice in one week. You know I would've gone with my friends." Roxanne said to her older sister. She turned on the radio and left it on B101.

"Yes, but if you did that I wouldn't be able to pick you up. You know better than that Rox." Elena scolded her little sister.

"Why you got dinner plans with Jason tonight?" Rox asked. Elena shook her head. Elena said, warning her sister. Roxanne muttered out something along the line of 'Party killer.' Elena shook her head. The drive back to the house was short and filled with Christmas music and commercials from the radio.

"Get you bag out of the back." Elena told her sister. Rox nodded her head and grabbed her bag before running up the steps and opening the door. Rox quickly closed the door and locked it. She waited for her sister to come to the door to try to open it. Elena looked at her sister, clearly seeing the mischief in her eyes. Elena tried to turn the door knob to open the door that didn't' work, so she figured that Rox must have locked it. She dug her hand into her pocket and grabbed the house keys. Roxanne saw this and pressed her body waited against the door to prevent her sister from coming in.

"Rox come on. Let me in." Elena shouted at her little sister. Roxanne shook her head. Elena narrowed her eyes at Roxanne. The sibling stayed that way for a minute more before Roxanne gave in and let her sister through the door. Once inside Elena shook off all the snow that had gathered on her and glared at her sister.

"You Missy are dead." Elena said once her coat was off and her hat, gloves, and keys were on the side table. Rox just smiled and ran.

"Oh no, you don't. " Elena said chasing after her sister through the house. They ran down the hallway and through the kitchen, up the stairs and around Elena and Jason's bed, back down the stairs and down another short hallway, before finally ending in the living room. They were both in fits of laughter. They had collapsed on the couch and just smiled at each other as they tried to catch their breath.

Elena looked at her sister. It had been so long since they were both happy and laughing. Several years back tragedy had struck them both and things weren't the same afterwards, no matter how hard Elena tried. Elena had just finished high school when it had happened. Roxanne was only in third grade when it had happened. It had been so hard on Elena. She knew that she had to take care of her sister. The only thing that Elena had worried about when she had gotten the news was, was it possible for the law to break up her and her sister. Since they weren't biologically related to each other, except by law, she worried that her sister would end up in the foster care system. Thankfully that hadn't happened but it still scared Elena.

Roxanne noticed that Elena's eyes started to water. She placed a hand on her older sister's hand.

"Hey you ok?" Roxanne said as her smile slowly started to fade. Elena shook her head and blinked back the tears that she hadn't noticed.

"Yes I'm fine. Sorry I'm just thinking about mom." Elena said with a small sad smile on her face. Roxanne didn't remember much about what had happened to her mom but she couldn't stand seeing her sister this way, no matter how much they annoyed each other.

"Hey I miss her too. It's ok, but please don't cry." Roxanne said trying to comfort her sister. Elena nodded her head. She had to be strong for her sister. She was Roxanne's older sister; she had to look out for the young 14, almost 15, year old girl.

"I have an idea. Why don't we make great grandma's cinnamon rolls, you love making them." Roxanne said. Elena smiled at her sister and nodded her head. Elena thought that it was a good idea, just to take her mind off of the sad memories. They walked over to the kitchen and started to pull out the flour and salt, baking powder and sugar. After the dough was made and set on the table to let it rise, a small flour war broke out in the kitchen. Both girls ended with flour on their clothes and in their hair. They looked at each other and laughed.

"See," Roxanne stated. "This cheers you up all the time. Oh hey you got some flour right…. there." Roxanne said as she smeared more flour on Elena's face. Elena gasped and grabbed more flour before throwing it at Roxanne's face. Needless to say the flour war broke out into round two. But the more important thing was that laughter was once more ringing through the house that had mourned for so long.

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**So I hope you like the story. Please leave a review, I would love to hear what you have to say. No flames. It is a Christmas themed story and this will be my main priority for the time being once I'm done with this story then I will go back to my other stories.**


	2. Last Christmas

**Hey, so I didn't get any reviews on the first chapter which makes me kinda sad. Usually I don't post the next chapter till I get at least one review, but I love the idea of this story so I guess I'll go with favorites instead. I also forgot to mention but Elena and her sister live in Philadelphia. **

**Anyway I hope you guys like this chapter and please leave a review so I know. Also I want to know what you guys think about my story, just please no flames.**

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_Merry Christmas, I wrapped it up and sent it_  
_ With a note saying 'I love you', I meant it_  
_ Now I know what a fool I've been_  
_ But if you kiss me now, I know you'd fool me again_

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A few days had passed since the flour fight in the kitchen and things were still as normal as could be. Elena was taking care of Roxanne and Jason was still away. The date came closer for Roxanne to be the Lucia at their church. Elena would find herself staring at her little sister and smiling about when she was the Lucia and Roxanne was in the front of the line. Elena had dug around in her jewelry box and found her Lucia necklace. She flipped it over and saw her initials engraved on the golden circle. Elena remembered seeing her mother, her godfather, and godmother sitting there in the front row smiling at her and seeing how beautiful she looked. Elena rubbed her thumb and fore finger over the golden circle and then put the necklace on. She looked at herself in the mirror and she could feel a shadow of her mother standing right behind her, placing her hands on her shoulder and smiling down at her beloved daughter. A small tear had escaped from Elena's eyes and a sad smile formed on her lips.

She quickly wiped her tears away when she heard the door opening and closing.

"Hello?" A voice called out. "Any one home?" The voice was all too familiar to Elena's ears. She walked out of her bedroom and then down the hallway that led to the stairs.

"Jason, you're home." Elena said with a big smile on her face as she walked over to her boyfriend of 2 years and gave him a hug. Jason placed his bags down and gave his girlfriend a kiss on the cheek as she threw her arms around his neck.

"I'm glad to be back. I've miss you. How's Roxanne?" Jason asked, knowing all too well that when he was away things would tend to get out of hand. Elena smiled at him and shook her head.

"She is fine, everything is fine. The biggest mess we made this time was a small flour fight in the kitchen when we were making great grandmother's cinnamon buns. That's all, nothing too hard to clean up" Elena said with a grin on her face.

"Well that's good to hear. I was expecting something worse." Jason teased her. Elena stared at him in disbelief.

"Like what?" She asked, but as soon as the words left her mouth she regretted saying them.

"Oh I don't know a leftover mess from a party that Rox convinced you to throw or something along those lines." Jason said as they walked to the living room and sat down on the couch. Elena rested her head against Jason's chest and listen to his heartbeat. Jason placed his hand on Elena's forearm and ran his thumb up and down her arm. They were both content with just sitting there and cuddling with each other in each others arms.

They stayed that way for a few more minutes before Jason kiss the top of Elena's head and asked to be excused to call up his friends, who were in town. Elena let out a soft silent sigh that went unnoticed by her absentee boyfriend. As his voice started to fill the room with his ear stuck to the phone Elena got up off the couch and went into a different room. She quickly busied herself with work as she always did when he came home. It wasn't strange for him to do this when he got home. He would spend a few minutes with Elena and then call up his friends and spend the night out with the guys. Elena was used to it. She would tag-along much to her boyfriend's annoyance, though he hid it well from their friends, but she never felt like she belonged even if she had known all of his friends since college. Elena still loved him and took care of him. She knew what he liked and what he hated, what he liked to do with his spare time, how he was when it came to stressful work deadlines. She cherished the small few moments that she had with her boyfriend. She was observant of his personality and as much as it pained her that he would rather spend time with the guys than with her, especially if he had been gone for such a long time, she let him do what he wanted anyway. It wasn't right, Elena knew that, but she still loved him.

"Hey babe, it's ok if I hang out with the guys tonight?" Jason asked, sticking his head through the door frame. Elena nodded her head, though she bit back her tongue with the words that threatened to spill.

An hour passed by and Elena announced that she had to pick up her sister. Jason mumbled something out that Elena couldn't hear but then shouted to say hi for him, since most likely he would be gone by the time they got back. Elena grabbed her keys and her coat and then headed for the door. She half slipped her coat on when she turned around to lock the door. As she came down the front steps, she failed to notice the small patch of ice that had covered the second and third step. So as clumsy as possible she fell flat on her butt.

"Ow!" Elena muttered out, shortly followed by a 'fuck'. A man who happened to be walking right by saw the woman fall, quickly made his way over to Elena. He looked down at her and realized that she was the same woman that he had bumped into a few days ago.

"Are you ok?" The man asked Elena. She looked up at him and smiled gratefully as he stuck out his hand to help her up.

"Thanks. I'm fine just slipped on a small patch of ice." Elena said shrugging off the throbbing pain of her achingly frozen butt. Elena looked at the man who had helped her up and saw how handsome he was. He had short dirty blonde hair, a defined chin and the most amazing blue eyes that she had ever seen.

"Thanks again, for helping me up." Elena said as she smiled at the stranger and turned around to walk to the end of the block to where her car was parked. As she was walking she felt a pair of eyes watching her. She turned her head and looked over her shoulder and saw that the man was staring at her. As weirded out as Elena should've felt, she felt perfectly safe with a stranger staring at her. She smiled at the man and saw him blush for being caught. The man smiled and continued to walk down the opposite direction of Elena.

As Elena got into the car she couldn't shake off the feeling that she had seen that man before, but she couldn't pin it down in her memory. Elena shook her head and she started the car. She started to drive down 20th street and stopped when the light turned red. It took her only about 15 minutes to get to Roxanne's friends house. She turned on her blinkers and then honked the horn to let Roxanne know that she was there. Elena could see Roxanne poke her head out behind the front window and then turn around to grab her things. Soon a blast of cold air came from the back door.

"Come on hurry up. Don't let all the hot air out." Elena said as she suddenly got the shivers.

"I'm hurrying." Roxanne said as she closed the back door and quickly slipped into the front seat next to her sister.

"So Jason came back," Elena started to say. "He's going out with the guys tonight so we've got the house to ourselves." Once she was finished she looked over at Rox and saw a huge smile on her face.

"Great that means we get to do whatever we want, by the way why aren't you two spending time together?" She asked her older sister. Elena shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"I don't know. Just what ever makes him happy I'm willing to do." Elena said in a short reply. Roxanne shook her head in disappointment.

"He should be spending the evening with you not the guys. That's so unfair. You're his girlfriend for crying out loud, not one of his friends." Rox nearly yelled out. She liked Jason as a brother, but when it came to not treating her sister right she was all heat and flames. She had been a few relationships like her sister but she always stood up for herself. Elena would stand up for herself but she never wanted to hurt the man she loved. So she let him do what he wanted. She was silently neglected by her boyfriend. But she took it all in strides and ignored what others thought of his treatment towards her.

"Come on let's not talk about my failing relationship with Jason. What do you want to do? We could go out to eat dinner? Go catch a movie or something, you chose?" Elena said trying to direct her sister attention to something else.

"Or we could order take out from the Mexican restaurant from around the corner and watch a Hindi film of yours." Roxanne suggested. Elena nodded her head, liking the idea of just staying at home for the night.

"We could do that. You wanna pick out the film?" Elena asked as she pulled up to the house before parking the car and turning it off.

"Sure. Oh do you still have the K3G film?" Roxanne asked as they got out of the car.

"You mean Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham?" Elena said, pronouncing the title of the movie perfectly.

"That's the one with the guy who falls in love with the working class girl and then is disowned by the guy's father, moves to London and then years later the guy's younger brother comes to find him and falls in love with the girl's younger sister?" Roxanne said in a single breath as she grabbed her bag from the back seat and ran to the front door. Elena nodded her head and sighed.

"You know it wouldn't hurt to just learn the names of the films." Elena said as she unlocked the door and walked inside with her sister following her. She closed the door and locked it, putting her keys and coat away once she was done.

"Come on you go get the menu and order the food and I'll go get the film. Sound good?" Elena asked as she started to climb up the stairs. Roxanne nodded her head. While Roxanne walked to the kitchen she called out to her sister.

"You want the same thing as last time?"

"Yeah the crispy steak tacos." Elena replied, yelling down to her little sister. She walked into her and Jason's bedroom went straight to her closet and pulled down a box of all her Hindi films. She slowly looked through all of them till she finally found the one she was looking for. She grabbed the film case and put the box away, back in the closet and walked out of the room and down the stairs.

"Hey you find the menu yet?" Elena asked as she set the film down on the kitchen counter and leaned against the counter looking at her sister go through one menu after another.

"No and it's really annoying, cause I know I had it just a few days ago." Roxanne said as she slammed the stack of menus on the counter. Elena laughed at her little sister and shook her head.

"Do you remember where you last had it?" Elena asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Yeah it was back where it was supposed to be." Roxanne huffed out. Elena shook her head and gave off a light laugh.

"You go put in the film and I'll look for the menu ok?" Elena said trying to get her sister to calm down before she tore the kitchen apart looking for the piece of paper. Roxanne nodded her head and swapped the menus for the film.

After a short time looking for the menu; Elena found it by the door, a place where it shouldn't have been at all.

"I found it. Rox you left it by the door again." Elena said as she poked her head into the living room. Roxanne's mouth fell wide open.

"No I didn't. I swear to god I put the menu back. Anyways let's just order the food I'm starving." Roxanne said as she sat down on the long side of the couch.

An order of food and a 209 minute film later the girls were tired and ready to fall asleep on the couch.

"Come on, let's go to bed." Elena said as she poked her sister's face. Roxanne scrunched her face up but eventually got up and went upstairs. Elena started to clean up the dishes from dinner. She looked over at the clock and realized that it was almost 2 in the morning. She shook her head. She couldn't believe that her sister had made it through film roughly over 4 hours long.

She heard the door open and shut. She poked her head around the corner and saw her boyfriend coming in.

"Jason you're back." Elena said with a smile. She walked up to him to give him a hug but she noticed how blood-shot his eyes were and stopped midway.

"You're drunk." She stated. He opened his mouth to say something but all of his words were slurred so nothing made sense to her ears.

"Com- …come here." Jason said, motioning for her to come closer to him. She shook her head and tried to walk past him to get upstairs. But Jason caught her forearm and pulled her back to face him.

"Come on babe, kiss me." Jason said taking one of his hands to force her to look at him. He had grabbed her by the chin and was squeezing her cheeks rather hard.

"Jason please, you're drunk. Let's go to bed." Elena tried to plead to him. But nothing that she tried made him give up.

"Shut up Tori." Jason said, slightly spitting on Elena's face. Elena's eyes shot wide open.

"Who's Tori?" Elena asked in the calmest voice that she could muster. Jason shook his head and then backed his face away from Elena and snickered.

"The bitch I've been fucking with, behind your back when you think I've been out on business trips." Jason spat out. He laughed at Elena's shocked face. Elena felt her eyes water as her tears threatened to fall from her eyes.

"God you are so fucking stupid. You thought I still loved you. I have you waiting for me at home like a housewife. I need a real woman to stand with me. Not some stupid bitch." Jason said as he took another gulp of his alcohol.

"I loved you." Elena said as the tears started to slowly fall down her face like a small waterfall that was hidden. Jason looked at her and rubbed his face. His alcohol was still in his hands.

"I never loved you Lani. I felt sorry for you. A stupid, ignorant little bitch like you needed someone besides your dumb little sister and your idiot uncle." Jason said using the nickname he had given to her after about a month or so of dating.

"Get out." Elena said through her tears and broken heart.

"What did you just say?!" Jason said, almost shouting at Elena. He stared at her in disbelief shock.

"I said get out. Get out of my house. Leave. Now. I don't want to see you here ever again. Get you things and leave. Don't you dare com-" Her sentence was cut off when Jason struck her. Elena felt immense pain run through her cheek. Quickly one of her free hands went straight to her cheek. She pulled her hand way and saw some of her blood covering her hand. Slowly she felt more blood pool in her mouth.

"Who do you think you are? You're a stupid fucking dumbass bitch. You don't get to tell me what to do. You got that. I get to say when I leave. You stay in the house till I say otherwise!" Jason shouted at Elena. She had never seen him so mad or so violent. He was usually such a calm person.

Elena slowly looked up at him and glared daggers into his eyes. She had enough with his childish ways and treatment. He was worse than Tony.

"I said get out! I don't want to see you ever again. You will leave or I'll call the cops." Elena threatened. She would hold her ground for as long as she could. She couldn't deal with his crap anymore. She was an independent woman, looking after her sister, doing her job and going through life.

"So the bitch finally has the guts to yell at me?" Jason said, but ended it more in a question.

"Yes, I have had it with your childish ways and your neglecting treatment towards me. I can't stand it that you treat me like I am one of your friends and not your girlfriend. I don't even fit in with your friends no matter how hard I tried to make you happy. You can't even stand my presence when your with your friends. You can't remember anything else I write it down for you or constantly remind you. You are sickening and stupid. I have had it! I wait for you like a faithful and good girlfriend should, but you blow me off and spend every minute you have with the guys. I hate it! I only get you to myself for a few minutes when you get home and then you're off with the boys at some bar or whatever. I can't stand it! I do everything for you because I love you but you can't even give me an hour of you time!" Elena shouted at him, at the top of her lungs. She was breathing heavily after her rant was finished. Her eyes were filled with anger and hurt, tears streaming down her face like silver ribbons.

"Get out of my house, now!" Elena yelled at him in front of his face. When Jason didn't budge, Elena started to shove him towards the door and took the alcohol from his hands as well as his keys, placing them both down on the side table by the door.

Elena shoved Jason out of her house and slammed the door shut, locking it behind her. She fearfully turned around and saw Jason standing in the cold. He still wore the stupid grin on his face, like he had won something. Elena couldn't take the sight of him, so she quickly locked the other locks and ran upstairs. She locked herself in her bedroom and cried herself to sleep.

Little did she know, her sister had heard the whole conversation, from beginning to end. She had tears in her eyes. She knew how much Elena had to grown up since the tragedy. Roxanne was heartbroken to hear that her sister had been cheated on. Rox wanted nothing more than to rip the bastard to shreds for breaking her sister's heart. But for now there was nothing that she could do.

Roxanne heard her sister silently crying from down the hall. It had only caused Roxanne to cry even harder, but not loud enough for her sister to hear.

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**This is actually the longest chapter I have ever written and I'm proud of it I was like half way finished with the second chapter like a day after posting the first chapter.**

**Don't forget to leave a review.**


	3. Silent Night

**I hope you guys like this chapter and please leave a review so I know. Also I want to know what you guys think about my story, just please no flames.**

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_Stilla natt, heliga natt!  
Allt är frid. Stjärnan blid  
skiner på barnet i stallets strå  
och de vakande fromma två.  
Kristus till Jorden är kommen,  
oss är en frälsare född._

_Silent night Holy night  
All is calm. All is bright  
Round young virgin, mother and child  
Holy infant so, tender and mild  
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in Heavenly peace_

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It was almost time for the Lucia festival and things were a little hectic in the main hall where they would have the St. Erik's fair. They would sell handmade woven ornaments and wooden carved Swedish horses. Everything was set up; food was being made and baked. The kitchen, which also served as the ordering and serving window, was busy with people running in and out carrying trays of food and other goods.

Elena was walking back and forth from a table to a car, holding boxes of woven handmade decorations. Elena was carrying the second to last boxes when she heeled the door close to keep the cold air out.

"Hey Lalitia." Elena said as she walked past the kitchen. Preity lifted her head to look at her friend and smiled as her hands were busy cooking soup. Elena continued to walk down the short pathway. What Elena hadn't noticed was a young man standing at the end of the walkway looking at some of the things that were already on the table. The next thing that anyone knew was hearing a loud crash and then someone falling on the floor.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. I didn't see you there." The man said, helping the young women to her feet. Elena shook her head and let out a light laugh, hearing this man apologize for something that wasn't really his fault.

"It's fine. I'm fine. Really it's my fault I could've seen where I was going but I was talking with a friend." Elena said trying to stop him from apologizing further. The man shook his head and helped Elena pick up the rest of the fallen items.

"I'm really sorry about crashing into you." The man tried again. Elena held up her hand to stop the man.

"It's ok. Really, nothings' really broken and even if it is I'll cover it, no need to worry." Elena waved him off again and placed the items on the table rather than in the box again.

"Now that's not right," The man started to protest. "I made you drop the items the least I could do is help you." Elena sighed, finally giving in.

"Alright how bout you help me with the table…." Elena then realized that she didn't know the name of the man that stood in front of her.

"Oh right sorry. I'm Steve." He smiled at her and held out his hand. She took his hand and shook it. Steve realized that this was the same women that he had run into a week or so earlier. She had fallen down her steps and he had helped her off the ground. He doubted that she had remembered his face.

"Well Steve you can stand here for a second and I'll be right back. There's another box in the back of my car that I need to get." Steve smiled at her and nodded his head. He had slowly gotten used to the 21st centuries modern technology, there were still some things that he was getting used to but nothing he thought he couldn't handle.

"Sure, by the way what's your name?" Steve asked. She turned around and gave a laughing smile.

"Sorry just call me Chhaya, all my friends do." She pulled her gloves back on and walked out the door, closing it behind her. Elena thought back to when all her friends started to call her by her middle name, Chhaya.

She opened the trunk of her car and pulled out the last of the boxes. As she was closing the trunk she saw her friend Raj pull up in the parking lot. A smile formed on her face.

"Raj!" Elena called out. The car engine stopped and a tan skinned man with raven black hair stepped out from the drivers' seat. The man smiled at Elena and walked over to her.

"Hey Chhayia, what's up?" He asked her, throwing his arm around her shoulder like he had always done.

"I told you to stop calling me that." Elena stammered out as Raj tried to tickle her to get her to smile. Raj just shook his head. He knew the reason why she didn't like being called Chhayia but he wouldn't let her live it down.

"And I said that I don't care. I'm going to continue calling you Chhayia for the rest of your life." Raj said as he opened the door to let Elena walk through and then closing it behind him.

"You will be the death of me." Elena said as she placed the box down on the table. She turned to open the box when she saw that Steve was still sitting by the table.

"Oh Steve sorry I forgot that you were here. This is my friend Raj Singh, Raj this is Steve." The two men shook hands and then talked for a few minutes. Elena started to unpack the box with the last of the items that the St. Erik's fair was selling.

"So how long have you known Chhayia?" Raj asks. Elena snapped her head around to glare at him.

"Raj stop that. Āpa vē mujhē jānatā hūm̐ ki kitanī dēra taka lōga pūcha kē āsapāsa mata jā'ō" (You don't go around asking people how long they've known me.) Elena scolded him in Hindi. Raj just smiled and shook his head.

"Chhayia Tuma mujhē usa sē bēhatara jānatē haiṁ. Maiṁ basa āpakō kucha hatyārā sē dōstī nahīṁ kara rahē haiṁ banānā cāhatē." (You know me. I'm just making sure that you aren't befriending some killer.) Elena smacked her face with her hand. She was going to kill Raj later.

"Raj, Maiṁ tō basa usē milē haiṁ. Akēlē rāja usē chōṛa dō." (Raj, I've just met him. Please leave him alone Raj.) Raj smiled at Elena but she knew that he would not just leave it alone.

"Sorry Steve, sometimes Raj here can be a little more than inappropriate and embarrassing." Elena said as she glared at Raj, at the same time apologizing to Steve for talking in her native language.

"Well I should go off and help the boys get ready." Raj said, winking at Elena. Elena just shook her head.

"Well now that, that's over with. You are free to go." Elena said walking around the table. Steve nodded his head and slowly started to walk away from the table. He looked back over his shoulder when he felt like he was a safe enough distant from Chhayia. He couldn't help but smile when he saw her fussing over one of the items that wouldn't stand up. Her face was flustered and her hair was still slightly messy from the wind.

It was still pretty early before the show started. He was in Philadelphia when he got the call from Pepper. She told him to stay down there and that the gang was to attend her friend's sister's show. Now Steve had never met Pepper's friend, in fact he hadn't met a lot of people since he woke up from the ice. So Steve was standing around waiting for Pepper and the rest of the gang to show up. Seconds passed by and turned into minutes and minutes turned into an hour before the gang finally showed up.

There was a loud clatter of footsteps when the gang entered the hall. Tony was on the phone talking with someone, Pepper was waiting for tony to be done with the phone call, Bruce looked worried like he was going to turn into the other guy, and Clint and Natasha kept looking around them like someone was going to attack them.

"Hey Capsicle!" Tony shouted out across the room. He handed the phone to Pepper, who shook her head, and walked over to Steve.

"Stark, I told you not to call me that." Steve warned the Billionaire. Tony just shrugged off the Captain's warning. After everyone had gotten their tickets they talked and ate. It was only a few minutes before the show was schedule to start. The next thing anyone knew was two loud voices screaming from across the room.

"PEPPER! TONY!" The voice shouted out.

"ELENA!" Pepper shouted out. All heads turned to the voices that were shouting. Pepper was already heading over to the voice. Steve's eyes followed Pepper and saw that the other voice belonged to Chhayia.

The two best friends ran over to each other, with Tony walking behind Pepper. They gave each other a hug. The gang was all looking over at the friends. None of them knew the woman that Pepper was hugging, well all except one.

"Oh my god Pepper you look great." Elena commented on Pepper's outfit. Pepper smiled at her old friend.

"You look great too Elena. Where's Roxanne?" Pepper asked, looking around.

"She's helping out in the kitchen though she should be heading over to the row house to get changed." Elena said catching the glance of Roxanne who nodded her head and then told the other people she was heading off.

The two friends talked for a few more minutes before Tony got impatient and spoke up.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Elena shook her head. She was fully aware that it was just Tony being Tony and there was nothing that she could do to change it.

"No Tony you're just being the spoiled little brat that you have always been." Elena said with a teasing smile.

"Nice to see you to Tony." Elena said as he pulled her in for a hug. He smiled and ruffled with her hair like a brother would do with a sister. The small group chatted for a little longer before Tony introduced Elena to the rest of the gang.

"So El, this is Bruce over here, just be careful around him you don't want to get him mad, then you've got Clint and Natasha, don't say anything offensive to Natasha, and lastly you've got-" Tony's words were cut off by the sound of Elena's voice saying Steve's name.

"What a minute!? You know Cap? How do you know him?" Tony said with his usual crazy tone.

"Relax Tony, I've just met him. I didn't know that he was friends with you." Elena said slightly laughing at the expression on Tony's face. Steve shook his head. What was he to do with Howard's son?

"Tony I didn't even know she was friends with Pepper, let alone you." Steve teased the scientist. Tony just glared at the almost ninety year old man.

"Watch it there Cap." Tony glared at Steve. Elena looked back and forth between the two of the men.

"Relax you guys, there's enough of me to go around. Besides I can be friends with whoever I choose." Elena said staring down at Tony.

"Come on you guys the show's about to start." Pepper said to everyone trying to shuffle the group out of the hall and into the church. After the group got into the church they settled into their seats and quietly talked waiting for the show to start. Tony was sitting next to Pepper with Bruce sitting on the other side of Pepper. Clint and Natasha were sitting next to one another still on the lookout for any threat, even though there was probably no threat at all. Elena sat on the other side of Tony with Steve sitting next to Elena.

"So Chhayia or Elena….. Which one do you prefer?" Steve asked rather awkwardly. Elena just smiled at him.

"I really don't care, I mean I like Elena better but I don't mind being called Chhayia." Elena said as she smiled at Steve. He was terribly handsome and rather awfully shy and awkward, but Elena found it cute and endearing.

"Well then Elena, how long have you been coming to this?" Steve asked trying to ignore the heat that he felt growing.

"A long time, since I was about 8 or 9 I guess. I stopped when I graduated high school. My sister was still doing it though, when I was done. I've just been helping out ever since." Elena explained. She smiled at her memories. Steve couldn't help but think how beautiful she looked. Her hair was softly curled; she had light makeup on, and making it seem as if it was barely there. He looked at her in the eyes as she talked. He got lost in the soft hazel eyes that were talking to him. The minutes seemed to go by in seconds and soon the light started to dim and the show was signaled to begin.

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**So as you could see I did use another language which by the way is Hindi if i forgot to mention that. I hope you like the chapter. Thanks for the Review.  
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